The road to the
London Olympics has now been paved with gymnastics gold. It is the road that stretches beyond 2012 that may shine with the true worth of Beth Tweddle’s brilliant, world title-winning floor routine on Sunday.

At a packed O2 Arena, hundreds of youngsters joined in the
celebrations, inspired by a world championships which brought Britain Tweddle’s gold and Daniel Keatings’ silver medal to set
alongside the Olympic bronze won last year by Louis Smith.

Add in those who watched live coverage on the BBC — surely a gymnastics first in this country outside an Olympic Games — and Arabian landings, double tkachevs and tsukaharas (moves on floor, bars and the vault, to you and me) just became sexy.

Up and away: Tweddle wows the London crowd with her title-winning floor routine

An hour after her triumph and with her gold medal still dangling around her neck, Tweddle said: ‘So many parents have come up to me already and said, “My little girl started gymnastics because she saw you in Beijing”.

‘The profile of British gymnastics is going up and, hopefully, with myself, Dan and Louis winning medals, that can only get better.

‘These results lead us into the 2012 Games. We will be able to
visualise our routines within this arena now. Having the home crowd really helps.

‘A lot of people said it added a bit more pressure but, to be honest,
it was one of the easiest floor
routines I’ve ever done. The crowd just kind of did it for me.’

The boom in British gymnastics can be seen in the waiting lists that many clubs are now having to compile because of full rosters, and in the expansion plans for the Huntingdon gym where coach Paul Hall has produced Keatings and Smith.

Golden wonder: Tweddle with her gold medal

It can also be seen in Britain’s status as European junior men’s team champions and in the crop of teenage girls who are primed to challenge for precious places in the 2012 team.
Tweddle will be their leader.

At the age of 27, that will make her almost twice the age of some of her rivals. Then again, Germany’s Oksana Chusovitina is 33 and she took the silver in the women’s vault in Beijing.

Tweddle’s age will be a factor in limiting her to the uneven bars and floor disciplines, in both of which she has now become world champion.

She added: ‘It was a very hard decision to give up the all-around competition, but I think in the long run it will be the right
decision.

'My body just wasn’t able to take the constant pounding. I was struggling a lot with the beam. I had a lot of injuries with my feet using the beam and it wasn’t one of my strongest events.

‘I was also having foot injuries with the vault. I’m not allowed to land facing back down the vault runway now. If I did, I’d be out of training for four weeks.

‘The bars are different. Ever since I was seven or eight years old, I was happy to swing around, never scared of it. I’ve fallen off and fractured my cheekbone, whacked my arm
and had to have surgery, but it’s never bothered me in the
slightest.

She's flying: Tweddle can't wait for the 2012 Olympics

'It just doesn’t seem to put me off, whereas I’ve never liked the beam. So between myself, the national coaches and my
personal coach, we decided it was best to leave the youngsters to the beam and vault.

‘It’s quite hard when you’ve just got one event. You work for four years, then it can be make or break in 30 seconds.

‘At least I’ve got the two events. As you saw, the bars competition didn’t go right here, but I can then forget about it because I have the floor to concentrate on.

‘I’ve been world champion on bars and now I’m world champion on floor, but I’d rather have an Olympic medal of any colour.’

Tweddle is proof that the
domination of Asia and eastern Europe in women’s gymnastics is slowly being dismantled. A new judging code has promoted a healthier balance between power and grace and refined the shape of its winners, away from the tiny teenage frames which were
threatening to over-run the sport.

In a spin: Tweddle dazzled the London crown with her floor performance

For evidence, look no further than the extra elevation Tweddle was able to generate in a floor
routine whose high tariff was simply too great for many of her rivals.

‘There are a lot of girls who aren’t these skinny rakes that people have this vision of,’ she said.

‘When I’m stood next to one of the Chinese girls, I do look like a giant, but you can’t say the little ones do better than the bigger ones now. It’s definitely changed.’